True Story

A popular "confessional" magazine, first published by Bernarr Macfadden (1868–1955) in 1919, True Story was enormously popular during the 1920s and 1930s. Its largely working-class readership devoured its sensational and often tawdry tales of sin, sex, and redemption. By challenging mainstream publishing norms and elevating scoundrels into heroes and heroines, True Story outraged conventional society with its depictions of vice and undesirable behavior.

Macfadden, the eccentric publisher of Physical Culture magazine, got the idea for True Story from the personal letters of "confession" he received from his readers about their own involvement with illegitimacy, premarital sex, adultery, and criminal activities. During the magazine's heyday, it was dismissed by serious critics, one of whom complained that it allowed millions of readers to "wallow in the filth of . . . politely dressed confessions." True Story was the forerunner of many of the supermarket tabloids that emerged in later years, with their tales of sordid gossip and bizarre occurrences.

By the 1930s, Macfadden succeeded in transforming the publication into a somewhat tamer women's romance magazine. It never lost its appeal to more downscale, poorly educated readers. Although altered in design and style over the years, the periodical has survived into the twenty-first century billed as "a modern woman's guide to love and life." Its first-person stories reflect more contemporary concerns, such as "I'm Going to Blow Up My School," "I'll Be Wife #5," and "War and Hunger."

—Edward Moran

For More Information

Ernst, Robert. Weakness Is a Crime: The Life of Bernarr Macfadden. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1991.

True Story Online Magazine.http://www.truestorymail.com (accessed January 16, 2002).